Darth Bane: Chaos (Book 1)

Chapters

Awakening
It Begins
Hunting
Planetfall

Awakening

Dramatis Personae

Bardin Jusik, Former Jedi Knight, Mandolorian, human (male)
Captain Shining Armor, Captain of Celestial Guard, Unicorn, prince, married to Princess Cadence, Equestrian (male)
Commander Gess, Commander of Sarlacc Company, Clone, Human (male)
Darth Bane, Sith Master, Dark Lord of the Sith, Human (male)
General Etain Tur-Mukan, Jedi Knight, Human, (female)
Kooren, Twi'ilek, Exile (female)
Lowbacca, Wookie (male)
Princess Cadence, Alicorn, princess, married to Captain Shining Armor, Equestrian (female)
Princess Celestia, Alicorn, princess, Co-ruler of Equestria, Equestrian (female)
Princess Luna, Alicorn, princess, Co-ruler of Equestria, formerly known as Nightmare Moon, Equestrian (female)
Qordis, Twi'ilek, Mandolorian (female)
RC-1031 Bor'ven, Republic Commando, human, clone, sniper and medic, (male)
RC-1028 Des, Republic Commando, human, clone, demolitions expert, (male)
RC-4093 Niner, Republic Commando, human, clone, Squad Leader, Sergeant, (male)
RC-7628 Sev, Republic Commando, human, clone, Technical expert, (male)
Twilight Sparkle, Unicorn, Element of Harmony: Magic, Equestrian, (female)

Part 1: Path of Destruction

Chapter 1

Location: Everfree forest/ Equestria

A single lavender colored unicorn with a purple mane that had a single pink stripe, trotted through the dark forest. The young unicorn, known as Twilight Sparkle, personal protege of Princess Celestia, and the Element of Magic, was searching the forest for an ancient artifact that had been lost many centuries ago. She had read a book written by the famous Starswirl the Bearded, that had contained cryptic comments of an artifact in the Everfree Forest that contained immense power, and knowledge. But that was all it contained, that and what the artifact was called; a Sith Holocron. Twilight had no idea what a Sith Holocron was or what it did, but she did have a hastily drawn sketch of the artifact from the book. And so the unicorn went in search of this artifact, alone.

She was scared. Twilight feared this dark forest, but her curiosity, and her pathological need to know everything about the world around her, drove her to keep searching. Twilight had been searching for about six hours and she was growing hungry and tired as Celestia's sun started its decent towards the eastern horizon. As she was about to quit for the day and head back towards Ponyville, there was the sound of a crash. Startled, Twilight turned towards the source of the loud noise and stared at the bush that had produced the noise. After a minute a white rabbit jumped out and then hopped away. Breathing a sigh of relief, the purple unicorn stepped forward to check how the rabbit had caused so much noise. Using her magic she brushed aside the branches and looked beyond the bush. What she saw made her jaw drop. She saw a metal contraption that was easily twice the length of her friend Applejack's barn, and just as tall. The paint had long since eroded away, but with what little remained it appeared that it used to be black. As she continued to stare she realized that it was old, very old. Unlike the old castle that lay in the center of the Everfree Forest, grass, moss, and vines refused to grow on it, or anywhere near it. As if this ancient piece of machinery was to sacred to grow on.

As she hesitantly stepped forward, Twilight heard a loud hiss and a ramp slowly descended from the large contraption. Curious, she walked towards the ancient machine, wondering what it held inside. But the young unicorn was disappointed. For all the large artifact contained was and empty space. As the unicorn turned to leave something drew her attention to the back of the cavernous space. There she found a small pyramid that slightly glowed a deep purple. The pyramid appeared to be made of some sort of crystal that Twilight didn't recognize. She didn't have time to study it, for she heard a deep and slow breathing. Turning towards the sound she used her magic to cast a spell that bathed the large area with light. Laying not two feet away from her was a large figure. It was massive, easily five times her height if it had been standing up, it probably was at least taller than Princess Celestia herself. The creature wore a black cloak over what looked like black armor that covered his chest and abdomen. It had on black pants and black boots that went up to its knees. It's face and neck were uncovered though, revealing tan skin, a bald and hairless face, and it's muzzle was pushed in, giving it a flat look. As she continued to study the creature, she saw something that intrigued her. On the very ends of the creature's forehooves were ten appendages, five on each hoof. Covering these appendages was a pair of what looked like gloves that had meen modified to fit its hooves. And like the rest of the clothing, they were a deep black. As she continued to stare at its hooves, the creature breathed again, deeply and slowly, but this time it sounded labored, like the creature was in pain and had trouble breathing. Thinking quickly, Twilight pulled out two parchments of paper, a quille, and a container of ink. Writing down her first letter, she told her assistant Spike, who was just a baby dragon, to send the second letter to Princess Celestia. Once she was done, both letters dissapeared in a flash of purple light. Now she just had to sit and wait. As she waited, her attention was drawn to the purple pyramid. Reaching out with her magic she picked it up.

As soon as she did, the pyramid glowed brightly and a small projection of what looked like a miniature version of the creature next to her appeared above the pyramid. Twilight stared in awe, she had seen nothing like this in her life. As she stared the figure began to speak. It had a baritone voice, that was menacing, and had a quality to it that Twilight found disturbing.

"I am... Darth Bane... Dark Lord of the Sith.."

SEVERAL DAYS LATER

Sudden awareness flooded into the Dark Lord's body. He could feel the dark side of the force course through his body. Without opening his eyes, the Dark Lord drew on the dark side to feel his surroundings. He felt five sentient beings within fifteen meters, and about another thirty within fifty meters. And just as suddenly as he had expanded his awareness he drew it back in. Every single one of them was atuned to the Force, and one was tainted by the dark side; bur even then, the power that tainted the last one was faint, as if it was a forgotten memory. This could only mean one thing... Jedi. Snapping open his eyes, he took in the world around him. He layed in a small bed that was to small for him. The floor was made of wood, as were the walls, which were covered in bookshelves, and in turn the bookshleves were covered with books. Like the rest of the room the ceiling was made of wood. To his left was a small window, and to his right was a large door. Standing in front of the door where two white equines, with electric blue hair, and wore minimal gold colored armor. Drawing upon the dark side of the force, he sent a wave of dark side power. The equines, caught unaware, were thrown against the wall, and then through it like it was tissue paper; they didn't even have time to scream as virtually all of the bones in their small bodies were broken. Getting out of the undersized bed, the Dark Lord stretched. When he was satisfied he stepped through the holes he had made in the wall. On the other side was a hallway. To his right, the hallway extended and there were many more doors. On his left was a staircase that led down. Turning to his left he headed down the stairs.

He was probably halfway down when a single, white equine in gold armor ran up the stairs and right at the Dark Lord, a primitive sword in it's mouth. With speed that seemed impossible due to his heavily muscled and tall body, the Dark Lord grabbed the equine by the head, the palm of his left hand on it's chin, and his right hand resting on the back of the helmet that the equine wore, he twisted his hands in opposite directions. The equines neck snapped with a sickening crack.

Dropping the now dead body, he continued to walk down the stairs, where he was greeted by two more equines. Raising his left hand, force lighting flew from his fingers and hit the equines, electrocuting them and burning their fur and skin. Looking around the room in grim silence, the Dark Lord saw an open door that led to a kitchen and a other door that more than likely led outside. Before leaving the room he expanded his awareness once again. Right outside the door were about three dozen more force sensitives standing right outside the door. Kicking down the door, he drew his lightsaber, the familliar weight settling in his hand. The lightsaber, the weapon of choice among both the Jedi and the Sith, was a weapon that, when activated, would project a solid beam of light anywhere from half of a meter two two meteres in length, that could cut through virtually anything in the galaxy. The Dark Lord's blade, like most Sith, was a blood red.

Stepping through the broken door and into the fading sunlight, he took in the scene before him in and istant. Standing before him, were thirty six of the armored equines, eighteen of them were the same as the ones inside the building, but the remaining ones were a dark blue/grey with black armor and dark hair. He noticed that there were three basic types of the equines, ones with horns, ones with wings, and some had neither. Standing behind them were three more, but these ones were different. The first one had white fur, with multicolored hair that waved in a nonexistant breeze. It also, unlike the others had both wings and a horn. It was also taller than the others and would come up to his upper abdomen. The next one was shorter the the white one, had midnight blue fur, had a royal and navy blue colored hair that also waved in an invisible breeze. Like the other, this one also had both wings and a horn. The last one was shorter than any of the others, had lavender colored fur, with purle hair that had a single pink stripe running through it, and only had a horn.

He took all of this in in a moment and debated what to do. They had to have been trained by the Jedi, if not now, then sometime in the distant past. The light side was to powerful here to be mere coincidence.

"We come in peace." the large white equine asked. By the sound of the voice, it was a female. It's voice had a regal, and kind, yet firm quality to it.

"Peace is a lie, an opiate to appease the masses." the Dark Lord replied. The white equines brow furrowed in confusion.

"Who are you?"

"I am Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith." Darth Bane said.

"Where does thow come from Darth Bane?" the midnight blue pony asked.

"I am a Dark Lord, that is all you need to know."

"We just want to ask you some questions." the white one said. As she spoke, Darth Bane was already thinking. They weren't just going to let him walk away, especially after they found out that he had killed five of their compatriots and the fact that there was such an obvious display of force in front of him.

"I am a Dark Lord of the Sith! I answer to no one but myself!"

With a flourish, Darth Bane activated his lightsaber, it's blood red blade casting an eerie glow in the fading light of the setting sun. Without warning, he jumped high above the group of equines, his lightsaber held in both hands above his head. As he landed, he brought it down on an armored equine, cleaving it clean in half. Switching from the aggresive form of Djem So that relied upon brute strength, to the more acrobatic form of Soresu.

It was like Zucca pigs to the slaughter. Not a single one could land a telling blow on the Dark Lord's body. As he stood above the last remaining armored equine, he had left the other three alone for they weren't a threat to him, it shook in fear and tears of pain rolled down it's face as it held the cauterized stump of where it's left forehoof used to be.

"Please..." the equine whimpered pathetically, "...I-I have kids..."

"Those who beg for mercy," the Dark Lord said, "don't deserve it."

And with that, he ended the equines life.

Twilight stared at the carnage in front of her. In front of her, layed the bodies thirtysix royal guardponies. The bodies were lined up in three rows of twelve, all covered with white sheets. Darth Bane, as the creature had called itself, had left, leaving behind a massacre. He, Twilight assumed it was male, had butchered the guards with a sword that glowed a blood red and was probably centuries, if not millenia more advanced than anything the Equestrians could ever make. It cut through armor, skin, and bones like they were melted butter.

As Twillight continued to stare at the bodies, a hoof wrapped around her and pulled her away. She didn't react to the touch at all, but continued to stare. Twilight was in shock, her mind with what just happened less than an hour ago. But there was no forgetting. It would stay with her, it would haunt her dreams, and torture her in her waking moments. Those brief ten seconds, probably the worst in her life, would stay with her, for the rest of her life.

Location: Everfree Forest/ Equestria

Darth Bane sat in a clearing in the forest on the edge of the primitive town. With his legs crossed and his hands in his lap, he meditated. He knew he was somewhere in the deep core; his ship, the Vengeance, was totally destroyed and had been so for many years. After killing his apprentice, Darth Zannah, after she had challenged him to the rank of Master, he had gone after a lead that he hoped would bring him to the location of Darth Aurek. When he finally arrived at his destination, he had arrived in a solar system with a small yellow star and a single planet with a single moon. But the strangest thing about the system was that the star orbited the planet. The planet itself was unremarkable except that there was a strong concentration of the Force. Curious, Darth Bane had guided his ship into orbit to observe the planet. But as he achieved a stable orbit, there was a sudden surge of both dark and light side power that had short-circuited the ship's systems. Bane had worked quickly to reroute the power as the ship fell to the planets surface. The engine and repulsors had restarted, but the ship had fallen too far, too fast, and he wasn't able to pull up enough to avoid a crash landing. After the crash he had pulled himself out of the wreckage, barely alive. The Dark Side couldn't heal, so he had to really on his body's natural healing ability as he went into a meditative trance.

When he had awoken from his trance, he had done so in the primitive village. He didn't know where he was, but he could figure that out quickly enough.

Stars polluted the night sky, but it wasn't an unwelcome sight. Nights like this were common on Datooine, but that didn't take away the beauty of it. But Bardin Jusik didn't care for this. He only concentrated on the job, on the hunt. He could easily see his prey's path through the forest. He wouldn't even need to use the Force for this job. Jusik's prey, an amatuer smuggler, had run off with several hundred thousand credits worth of glitterstim that Qibbu the Hutt was smuggling into Coruscant. No being, but especially the Hutts, liked being stolen from.

So that led Bardin Jusik, Mandalorian Bounty Hunter, mercenary, and former Jedi Knight, to his current situation He carried a Verpine Shatter Gun in his left hand, his Light Saber hung from his left hip, and he had a Verpine Sniper Rifle slung across his back. He had learned to love the Verpine weapons from his adoptive father, Kal Skirata. There was a brief rustle behind him Jusik didn't even need to turn his head to spot the disturbance, the wrap-around vision that his helmet provided. There were many things that he loved about his Mandalorian armor, the protection it provided, the 360 degree field of vision, but most of all, he loved what it represented. It represented a warrior, a culture that could not be destroyed, a culture that had survived thousands of untold years, of war and combat. Nearly every color in the Mandalorian culture had a meaning. Red was for honoring a father, grey was for mourning a lost love, orange was for a lust for life, the list went on and on. Jusik's was a combination of two colors; black, for justice, and a sandy gold for vengeance. Jusik wanted justice for the clones that the Republic was using as its slave army in its war against the Separatists. That was actually the reason why he left the Jedi Order. He also wanted vengeance for all the clones that would never know a normal life. Jusik stood there, waiting for the smuggler to show himself. After a minute the young man, no older than twenty, stepped from the bush, a blaster pistol held tightly in his hands.

"I'll pay you double... no, triple, whatever Qibbu's paying you, if you let me go!" the young smuggler said, the fear obvious in his voice.

"A contract's a contract." Jusik replied with a shrug as he turned around, leisurely. The smuggler, without warning, fired a shot. Even if Jusik hadn't sensed this in the Force and dodged, the shot would have bounced off his armor. Mandalorian Iron was the strongest in the galaxy. It could deflect a lightsaber and not even have a burn mark on it. But that didn't make the wearer impervious. There were still sections of the armor, though small, that a well placed shot could penetrate. It also wouldn’t protect him from the shock wave of an explosion, but it would still help ward such things.

As Jusik jumped back to his feet, he fired three rounds from the Verpine Shatter Gun. The first shot went wide, but the second and third shots hit the smuggler in the chest. But as he fired the third shot, there was a flash of light and a brief feeling of weightless. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the light faded and he hit the ground... hard.

"Twi... what is that?" said a voice that had an odd accent to it that Jusik couldn't identify.

"I dont know! This wasn't supposed to happen!" said another female voice with a neutral accent.

"Yeah... that's obvious." said another voice that had a tomboyish quality to it.

"Well I would have to say that its choice of colors are... odd." said yet another female voice that had the unmistakable Coruscanti accent.

"Fierfeck that hurt." Jusik groaned as he sat up. Opening his eyes, he saw a stone floor beneath him. Looking around, he saw a number of aliens around him. Most were scared, but all were curious. The one directly in front of him was similar to an equine with lavender colored fur that had a single pink stripe running through it. Slightly above her forehead was a single small horn. Even without his force abilities he could tell several things; first, the being in front of him had tremendous potential in the power of the force; second, the equine was trying to forget something that had happened recently. Moving on to the next one, he saw an orange equine with blond hair and it wore a Stetson hat. The next one had white fur, with purple hair and, like the first, had a horn above her forehead. Next, was a cyan blue equine with rainbow colored hair and it had two wings coming from its back. And standing behind him were six more equines. They all had white fur, with electric blue hair, and minimal gold armor. Two of them had horns, two had wings, and the others had neither. Somehow they carried spears in their hooves, and had swords sheathed at their sides.

As Jusik stood up, the armored equines lowered their spears. Ignoring them, but keeping one eye on them, he spotted his shatter gun lying on the ground next to him. After picking up the shatter gun, he holstered it, and removed his helmet, breathing in unfiltered air.

"Today is proving to be a very interesting day." Jusik said to himself as the equines continued to stare at him.

"Hy! Myname'sPinkiePie! Whoareyou? I'veneverseenaponylikeyoubefore!" said a pink equine, with pink hair and bright blue eyes, as it bounced up and down in front of him. "Oh! Oh! Maybe you're a Mandalorian Mercenary that the author brought here to help even out the odds and he's planning on bringing-" The pinkie equine finally stopped talking when the cyan colored one shoved her hoof in the pink one's mouth.

"Please be quiet Pinkie..."

"Kandosii." Jusik whipered to himself. Kandosii meant classy in Mando'a, the Mandalorian's language. "My name is Bardin Jusik of Clan Skirata. I am what you would call... a Mandalorian."

"Mando... laurian?" asked the lavender colored one, finally getting over its fear of him.

"Mandalorian." Jusik said, more slowly this time. "Anyway... who are you?"

"Well my name's Twilight Sparkle-"

"And I'm Pinkie Pie." the pink equine said, interupting the Lavender colored one.

"Mah name's Applejack." the orange told Jusik.

"I'm Rarity darling." the one with white fur and purple hair said.

"And I'm Rainbow Dash. The most awesome flyer in all of Equestria!" the cyan colored one with rainbow colored hair.

"It’s nice to meet you all but-" Jusik began to say but was interupted when a pair of large golden doors swung open and another equine walked through. This one was taller than the others, about the same height as Jusik was. It had white fur, with multicolored hair that blew in an invisible breeze. This one, unlike the others, had both a horn and a pair of wings.

"You said you were a Mercenary did you not?" the large equine said. It had a female voice that sounded regal and had a kind, yet firm, quality to it.

"Who wants to know?" Jusik replied, as he stuck his thumbs into his belt.

"I am Princess Celestia. Ruler of Equestria. Now are you a mercenary or not?"

"I am."

"Good." the princess said. "I have a job for you."

It Begins

Chapter 3

Jusik followed the pricess through the halls of the castle. As he followed Princess Celestia, he saw many more equines. Most of them stopped and stared at him as he walked by, either curious, scared, or a combination of both. They came in many different colors ad no two were alike; one was a bright yellow with a green mane and wings, another was blue with golden hair and had a hon above its forehead. Jusik also noticed that almost all of them had a stylized tattoo on their flanks. One had one of a quill and a bottle of ink, and yet another had several bubbles. Princess Celestia had one of a stylized sun. Jusik made a mental note to ask about that later.

The princess turned and entered a room that had large wooden door with an engraving of a large sun on the front. The room itself wasn't very large, only four metres across and eight long. The ceiling itself was only about a metre above Jusik's head. To his left was a window that displayed a spectacular view of the rest of the castle and a city beyond it's outer walls. To the right was another door that led to what looked like a bedroom and a balcony. Sitting against the back of the room was a wooden book case and a fireplace. The walls were covered with wood paneling, and sitting in the center of the room were several pillows. Jusik was certainly surprised by this, but he didn't let it show on his face. He had been expecting a room filled with finery, expensive items, and other fine trappings that were usually assosiated with royaly.

"Is there anything you need to drink or eat Mister...?" Celestia asked.

"Jusik... you can me Jusik m'lady." Jusik replied. The princess smiled and cocked an eyebrow at the last part.

"I may be a mercenary, but I was raised to be a polite one."

"I see." Celestia said as she sat down across from him. Jusik chose to remain standing. "Well, would you like some refreshments Mister Jusik?"

"No thank you."

"Well than. As I said earlier, I have a job for you."

"I'm listening."

"About a week ago, there was an incident where something very like you, except without armor and was much bigger, killed thirty-nine of mine, and my sister's, guard. He wore all black and he had a weapon similar to that." Celestia said as she pointed to Jusik's lightsaber. If he wasn't interested before, Jusik certainly was now.

"What color was it?" Jusik asked as he sat down.

"Red... blood red."

"Probably a Sith wannabe."

"What is a Sith?"

"A Sith is a follower of the Dark Side of the Force and ancient enemies of the Jedi. They are very dangerous and should caution should be approached with extreme caution." Jusik said, quoting his former master, Arligan Zey. "But I'd rather not get in philosophy right now. There is one issue though..."

"And that is?" Celestia asked. The princess obviously hadn't had much experience with mercenaries and bounty hunters.

"The matter of price princess."

"How much do you require Mister Jusik."

"Ten million of the local currency."

"Ten million!" the princess said, almost yelling.

"Hey... Mandalorians don't come cheap; especially so if you want them to go after a Force user."

The princess sighed and stared intently at the ground. Jusik knew that if he was still a Jedi, he would actually care about this threat, but he had left that part of his life behind, and took up the mantle of Mandalorian. But it was still hard to shake habits that had been ingrained in him since he was an infant. That didn't mean he would do it for free though.

"... four million." Celestia whispered.

"... I am feeling charitable today..." Jusik told Celestia, "so I'll agree to this. But I will need a guide."

"And that shall be provided." Princess Celestia said as she stood up.

"One last thing though..." Jusik said.

"Yes?"

"Dead or Alive?"

Coruscant/ Senate District

I walked down the boardwalk, ignoring everyone who stared at me. And there were plenty of stares. Almost no one ever saw a clone as close as they saw me right now. Especially without a helmet. And even less saw Republic Commandos Sarge had ordered us to take off our helmets as soon we left the barracks. It wasn't the strangest order he's given to Beta Squad, but it certainly was in the top ten list. Probably something that Sergeant Skirata had told him before they left.

"They're human!" I heard one Twi'ilek exclaim. Do you know just how human we are?

"They're so young!" a woman said. But did she know just how young we were?

Me and the rest of my squad heard things like this all the way to the Jedi Temple. No one wanted to get in our way. They all moved aside as if we were tanks about to roll right over them. All things considered, we were tanks. The Katarn armor was bulky, nearly four times as thick as the standard trooper armor, and could survive the hard vacuum of space, knives, grenades, ballistic rounds, and even a turbolaser shot; even though no one wanted to voluntarily test the theory of the last one.

Walking up the steps that lead to the entrance of the Jedi Temple, I was amazed at its sheer scale. It was massive. I had read that it had been built over an entire mountain. It wasn't an exaggeration. But I didn't get much time to look at the area around me, for almost as soon as we had mounted the last step, a Jedi Padawan, a Rodian, walked up to us.

"Beta Squad?" the padawan asked.

"Yes ma'am." replied Niner, our squads sergeant.

"RC-1028?"

"Here Commander." I said. I wasn't surprised in the least, that someone would want to debrief me personally... and alone.

"Would you come with me please?" the Padawan asked as she turned and walked into the temple. I didn't disobey.

"What's your name?" the padawan asked me. This was uncomfortable for me. Asking a clone's name was a personal question... a very personal question.

"RC-1-"

"Not your number... your name."

"... Des... ma'am."

"It's nice to meet you Des." she told me. I remained silent. We walked the rest of the way in silence. When we reached a specific door, she turned and waved me in. On the other side of door, was a small garden, with an Ithorian standing in the center, watering the plants.

"RC-1028?" the Jedi asked as he offered me his hand.

"In the flesh sir." I said as we shook.

"I'm Master Fogarth. I've heard a lot about you private. Word spreads quickly. Especially on Corellia. It's a very leaky place you know. You should remember that."

I didn't reply.

"No trouble en route?"

"None sir. Why? Should there be?"

"Nothing untoward at La Guardia?"

"Nothing sir. There was no problem at all."

"Well that's good. It's a relief actually. I'm just glad that we were able to pull the right strings. Get CorSec to back off enough to back off long enough to get you and the team out."

"We... sir?"

"Well, Naval Intelligence did the actual string pulling, obviously."

"Sir, are you confusing me with someone else? No one got us out of anything. We'd finished what we were doing over there. And the police had no reason to be sniffing around for us."

"Of course," Master Fogarth said, pulling a holozine from the bottom of the pile on his desk, and placing it in front of me. "Whatever works for you. I completely understand."

The holozine was a copy of yesterday's. On the front cover was a picture of a house covered with crime-scene tape. The headline read: Butchered in the Bronx: WOMAN, MEN MASSACRED IN UNEXPLAINED, SAVAGE ATTACK. I didn't need to read the report. I knew they wouldn't get the details right. And what happened in that house didn't strike me as unduly savage, given the circumstances.

"Interesting story," I said, thinking of the last time I saw Lesley. "Someone must have had a pretty good reason to do all that."

"A very good reason. I hear that the first officer to respond lost his breakfast. Which is something, for a cop used to working the ganglands of Corellia.

"Really? I wouldn't know. I've never been there."

Well, I've been there once actually, to one house. To take care of one piece of business.

"Of course you haven't. But Corellian Security would like to think otherwise."

"They've been wrong before."

"Not this time. I understand they're very confident."

"How so? I hear there were no survivors. No witnesses. No usable forensics."

I knew there were none. I'd gone out of my way to make sure.

"But they do have the victim's Identity," Fogarth said. "And that tells them a lot."

"Which victim?" Weren't there several?"

I remembered each ones face. Their clothes... their smell... what they'd been doing as I tracked them through the house. How they looked as I lowered them, lifeless, to the ground as I moved on to the next one in line.

"There were eight or nine they think." he replied.

"I'd say more like seven... from what I heard."

Only four of them had been any good though. The others should have found another line of work.

"It's the woman they're focusing on."

And why not? That's exactly what we did. For an entirely different reason.

"How chivalrous." I said.

"No. Just practical. A lot of things stand out about her."

"I'm sure they do."

"I'm being serious private. The way she was singled out, for example. She was the last to go you know."

I do know. We planned it that way. We didn't want any interruptions.

"Are they sure?" I asked.

"They're certain."

"Then maybe she was hiding when, whatever it was, kicked off. Maybe the others were trying to protect her."

They didn't try very hard. But it wouldn't have mattered if they had. Nothing could have saved her that night.

"That's what CorSec thinks. That the men were her body guards."

"They didn't do such a good job then. By the sound of it they hardly put up a fight. She should have hired more carefully."

"The police don't think it was the guards' fault. They're not blaming them at all."

"Why not?"

"They were all ex-military. Well trained and heavily armed. No trace of alcohol or drugs. None of them had been sleeping on the job. They were just overwhelmed."

"Implying a number of attackers?" I asked.

We'd had her in our sights once before, and then stood aside to let the police have their shot. We weren't going to make that mistake again. And she knew it.

"No," the Jedi said. "There were four or six. But only one of them did the actual killing. A professional. Someone who does this kind of thing for a living."

"They don't know that. They're just fishing."

"No... look, these guards were killed one at a time. Silently, so as not to alert the others. Or the neighbors. Some had their necks broken; others were stabbed, neatly, between the ribs. One was suffocated. They were picked off methodically to give... someone... access to this woman."

"That proves nothing."

"And there's the way she was killed. Someone physically dragged her out of her panic room. Then shot her in the head. Twice. From close range."

"Probably a mob hit."

"No. The police don't think so. She wasn't on her knees when she was shot. Mob guys always make their victims kneel apparently. Whoever did this wanted to look at their victim when they pulled the trigger."

He had it backwards this time. I didn't want to look at her. I wanted her to look at me. To know who was pulling the trigger.

"Maybe this guy took more pride in his work." I suggested.

"Maybe... but it wasn't brutal enough. There was no sadism. If one outfit was moving on another, they would have wanted to send a message. Something depraved, crazy, psychotic even. It's the same all over the galaxy. This was calculated. Deliberate. Like a surgeon chopping out something malignant."

Now he was back on track. The woman had been malignant. Like a tumor. Corrupting everything she touched. There was no way we could have let her survive.

"We could speculate all day sir. But whoever killed her , I expect she deserved it."

"I'm sure she did. But the point is, this was personal. This woman was executed. And you just so happened to know her."

"I did?"

I knew her only too well. And I wish with all my heart, that the day I met her had never happened.

"You were a recent house-guest of hers apparently."

"Really?" I asked. "Who was she? I didn't see any names in the report."

"The police withheld it. But our contacts were able to get a first name."

"Which was?"

"Lesley. Although I think you knew that."

"Lesley? That sounds like a pretty common name. There must be lots of Lesleys on a planet like Corellia."

"Come on private," the Jedi said, now clearly loosing his patience. "I've played along with this long enough. We all know what you did."

"I'm admitting nothing."

"Of course not. But you wouldn't be worthy of the uniform if you'd just stood back, after what she did."

I didn't reply.

"I understand. I really do. I heard you two were close."

I bit my tongue.

"Look private, even the Jedi Council approves. Unofficially of course. That's why CorSec was kept at arm's length for so long. But there's a limit to what they'll turn a blind eye to. You dump the worst horror show Corellia had ever seen in a century and leave them looking like they can't catch the perpetrator. The press is slaughtering them ten ways till Endor. They're humiliated."

"They'll get over it, or they'll just frame someone. Some lowlife they've been trying to get rid of for years."

The Jedi sighed and leaned back in his chair. He picked up a datapad that sat on his desk and started to scroll through the contents. After several minutes of silence, the Ithorian Jedi, leaned forward and slid the datapad across the table. I picked it up, but I didn't look at it.

"You're next mission." Fogarth said, clarifying what was on the 'pad. "There's no time to brief you properly, so everything you need to know is on that datapad. The Relentless is leaving in thirty minutes... with or without you. Dismissed."

Without a word, I stood up, saluted, and turned towards the door. As I approached it the Jedi stopped me.

"May the force be with you private. And good luck."

I had a feeling in my gut that I would need all the luck in the galaxy for Beta Squad's next mission. It gives me no pleasure when my feelings turn out to be right.

None at all.

Author's Note

Fot those of you who don't know. Yes, Des was acting well within the norms for a Republic Commando. They're trained and raised to be more indepenent than the Infantry clones. And it won't happen often but in a fanfic like this, if it ever switches to first person like that, it's usually important.

Hunting

Chapter 4

Des sat down on his bunk and started to remove the plates of his armor, leaving him clad in only his bodysuit. Hearing the sound of boots on the metal deck, he looked up to see Sev sit down on the bunk across from his. Sev looked exactly like Des, for they were both clones after all. Sev placed his DC-17 in his locker, and started to take off his armor.

"So, have you heard about our new commander?" Sev asked as he took off the right arm bracer.

"Yeah. Heard she was real chummy with Omega." Des replied as he dissasembled his DC. Rumors and gossip traveled faster han the speed of light in the miltary. And even faster with the Commando groups.

"I was told she took it several steps further with one of them."

Des cocked an eyebrow at this. Now this was really interesting.

"Aren't Jedi supposed to not form attachments and all that osik?"

"She's different. This one cares."

Des grunted in aknowledgement. He didn't believe that. All the Jedi saw the clones as cannon fodder, a means to an end. But Des had been wrong before, and he was open to new things. Laying down, Des closed his eyes and fell asleep. Being able to sleep anywhere and at anytime was a skill that all soldiers could do so well.

Hearing the sound of the door at the end of the barracks open, Des woke up to see Niner, Beta Squad's Sergeant, and Bor'ven, walk into the room. Niner, like the rest of Beta Suqad, wore dark grey Katarn armor, but unlike them, he wore a camo net over it. Without any camo-strips woven into it, the net looked like a spider had decided to make the exterior of his armor its home.

"Saddle up boys. General Tur-mukan is waiting for us. Let's not keep her waiting."

Everfree forest/ Equestria

Darth Bane let the griffon's now headless body fall back to the ground. Deactivating his lightsaber, he hooked it onto his belt and stepped over the dead body. The griffon, who's name started with a G but Bane couldn't remember the rest, had very little information, but had served its purpose. He now knew more about were he was. Darth Bane was in a forest called the Everfree in a country called Equestria, which was ran by two alicorn Princesses known as Celestia and Luna, who were thousands of years old. The younger of the two sisters, Luna, had just recently come back from a banishment after she had tried to take over Equestria after she had grown jealous of her sister. Though Darth Bane wondered why the older of the two, Celestia, hadn't killed Luna after the attemted coup. He guessed that Celestia was sentimental. Sentimentality made you weak, and weakness could get you killed. At the last thought, Darth Bane's face cracked ino a rare smile as a plan started to form in his mind.

Aboard the Relentless

Something was wrong, very wrong. The deck shook as the ship took another hit. Niner had sent Des to the bridge to find out what whas happening after he had failed to raise General Tur-Mukan on the comlink. After several more turns, Des finally saw the doors that led to the bridge. Stepping onto the bridge, Des found himself amidst a scene of organized chaos. Men rushed back and forth,carrying out certain tasks that Des couldn't even begin to understand. At the center of it all stood five figures.

The first one Des spotted was Lowbacca. The wookie that had promised to Sergeant Kal Skirata to protect Getain Tur-Mukan. Lowbacca was about an average height for a wookie, two metres, and had grey brown hair covering his entire body. The second figure was a Twi'lek named Kooren. Kooren was short for a Twi'lek, only about five feet and three inches tall. She had red skin, which was extremely rare. Kooren had been exiled by the Jedi Council nearly fifteen years before, and would be their guide on the planet Fondor. Next was the short and skiny figure of Jedi General Etain Tur-Mukan. She wore the tan robes of a Jedi and had two lightsabers attached to her belt. She had pale white skin with freckles scattered across her face. Her eyes were a dark brown and she had shoulder length brown hair. Across her back was a LJ-50 conc rifle that made her look like the rifle's attachment. The next and last figure was Captain Gordon. Everything about Gordon was average. He was medium sized, with his naval uniform worn neatly, and his grey hair shaved close to his skull.

"Captain... General." Des said as he saluted them. The Captain ignored him, but Etain turned to meet Des.

"Good morning..." Etain said. She was young. Probably no more than eighteen years old, which was probably a little young for a Jedi Knight but Des didn't know. It took him a minute for him to figure out she was waiting for him to tell her his name.

"... Des ma'am."

"Well good morning Des."

"Ma'am, what's attacking us and how can Beta Squad assist?"

"Captain?"

"No the-" the Captain was interupted when the ship took a turbolaser hit.

"Helm! Come to bearing 0-2-7! Declination ten degrees!" the Captain yelle

"Bearing 0-2-7! Declination Ten degrees aye sir!" came the respnse from one of the clones.

"Angels Squadron. I need you to harass the Battle-cruiser. Buy us some time." the Captain said. The Relentless had an escort of two squadrons of Corellian Gunships and four squadrons of ARC-170's. And he had just ordered three of the six gunships against a ship twice the size of the Relentless and had three times as many guns. In Des's opinion this wasn't very smart. But then he saw what was displayed on the tactical holochart in front of him. They were severly outmatched, but if what the Captain was attempting worked, it would allow the Republic forces to get out with their skin intact.

The Relentless and its escorts faced a combined force of eight droid fighter squadrons, two Trandoshan slave ships, an Interdictor-class cruiser, and a Techno-Union Battlecruiser. In short, it was an impossible fight. But if they could take out the Interdictor, they could make the transition to Hyperspace. An Interdictor-class cruiser sacrificed firepower for four large Gravity Well generators, which could trick a shp's hyperdrive that a planet size object was in the target ship's path, thus bringing it out of Hyperspace. It could also be used to prevent a ship from entering Hyperspace as it was doing now. But since it lacked the firepower of a normal capitol ship of its size and couldn't defend itself except from close range strafing runs, and so rarely travelled without an escort.

The Confederate commander had made the mistake of leaving the Interdictor exposed along his right flank. Apparently, Captain Gordon had spotted this and was deploying the Corellian Gunships to distact the enemy so he could close with the Interdictor and disable or destroy it. He was rellying on the Corellian Gunship's heavy armor so they could get in close and do what every spaceship captain dreaded. A close quarters shootout. But the manuevre was extremely flawed. First of all, the gunships would have to get past the awesome firepower of the Battlecruiser, and then it would have to deal with the Trandoshan Slave ships as they simultaneously fought the Battlecruiser in close quartes combat. In short it was a suicide mission... a suicide mission for everyone but Corellians. Des had seen six Headhunter snubfighters with Corellian pilots go up against a Trade Federation Cruiser and suffered only four cassualties and with the Cruiser destroyed with all hands.

The second issue was that the captain was holding back most of his forces. A mistake that could cost them their lives.

"Captain!" Des called out.

"What is it trooper?" the captain growled.

"Sir, you're making a tactical mistake. You need to pull back the fighter squadrons to run interference and deploy all the gunships to take out that Battlecruiser, sir."

"I'm not trying to take it out. I'm bying us some time." the captain relied as he turned away.

"Captain, if you don't do this. Those Gunships won't even be able to get three fourths of the way there. But if you deploy all of them Not only will they actually make it, but they will be able to at least dissable both of the Tandoshan ships and damage the Battlecruiser with minimal casualties and with at least three of the gunships intact, sir." Des said. Captain Gordon whirled around, clearly angry.

"If there's one thing I don'tneed to deal with right, it's some kriffing... clone... who thinks he know's more about naval combat than his Captain!" the Captain yelled.

"Then captain... you are being relieved of your command." Des said as he nodded to two MAA's (Master at Arms... essentially naval military police) who stepped forward to grab the captain.

"This is mutiny!" the captain yelled.

"No sir. Naval law says that you are a danger to yourself and the entire crew."

"Acceptable losses!"

"No captain. The death of General Etain Tur-Mukan is not and acceptable loss."

"You're supposed to be completely obedient!"

"No sir. You obviously don't understand basic genetics. You can't predispose someone to be obedient. Only more likely to follow orders."

The captain was now thoroughly enraged. He pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Des. In response, Des dashed forward and twisted the pistol from the captain's hands, breaking several of his fingers in the process. Twisting his left hand, Des turned the captain and yanked his arm down breaking it and bone tore through his uniform, splattering blood over Kooren.

"Now you will release your command to General Tur-Mukan."

"Frag you." the captain said after screaming. In response, Des pulled the captain's arm down further.

"Do it."

"Fine. As captain of the Relentless; I, Captain Gordon, relinquish my command and all vessels, material, and personnel, to Jedi General Etain Tur-Mukan."

"I stand witness to the change of command." a MAA said.

"I accept the change of command." Etain said quietly. Her face betrayed her emotions to Des. Anyone else wouldn't have noticed, but Des had been raised among a million men who looked exactly like himself. Etain was horrified at what Des did. And he admitted to himself that he had gone a little overboard, but what was done was done and couldn't be changed.

"Des?" Etain asked quietly as Captain Gordon was escorted to the med-bay.

"Yes ma'am?"

"What now?"

It took Des a second to figure out that she was handing command to him now.

"Angels Squadron?"

"Who is this?" came the response.

"RC-1028. There's been a slight change of command. I need you to hold position just outside the Battle-cruiser's guns and wait for Hammer Squadron to catch up to you. I want you to take on that enemy force in a combined assault."

"Understood." said the squadron's leader. Des then relayed a similar order to Hammer Squadron, the second Corellian Gunship squadron assigned to escort the Relentless to the planet Fondor.

"All ARC squadrons disengage, and fall back to protect the Relentless. Helm! Bring us to bearing 1-3-5, inclination four degrees. Fire control, focus all fire on the Interdictor class cruiser once it's in range." Des said. Hopefully they would make it out alive.

Equestria/ Ponyville

Jusik stepped off the carriage that had brought him, and his guide, to the town where the slaughter had taken place. Placing his helmet on his head he took a look around. The medium sized town had eye achingly bright and colorful buildings. The one that caught his eyes the most was a large... tree house. The house apparently had been carved out of the still living tree. From it, he could feel a faint darkness emanating from it. The bodies had been moved but Jusik could still spot small patches of blood here and there. A lightsaber would cauterize the wounds it made; even as it killed and injured.

Closing his eyes, Jusik squatted down and placed the palm of his armored glove on one of the patches of dried blood and reatched out with the force. He felt hate, rage, the most base feelings of the Dark Side. But this was different. It felt... reserved. Cold. Calculating. Like those emotions were simply a means to an end. It was unlike what he had been raised to believe. Whoever this Force user was, he controlled the emotions, letting them feed his power. The emotions didn't use him.

Withdrawing, Jusik was left lightheaded and slightly dizzy. Standing up, he checked his HUD (Heads Up Display) and saw that only two minutes had passed. It was an odd feeling that he would never queit get used to. The trances always felt like thay were a lot longer than they actually were.

"Are you alright?" asked his guide as she started to walk twoards the tree house.

"Yes... and don't go in there. I need to check it first." Jusik told the lavender colored unicorn. She stopped in her tracks and turned around, a look of confusion on her face. Jusik decided it was a very good time to mess with her mind. It wouldn't do at all if they came face to face with his target and Twilight froze up when he needed her.

"360 degree field of view with electromagnetic, ultraviolet, thermal, night vision, and broad spectrum filters. I can see everything you do," Jusik said. Taking a step closer with every sentence. Twilight backed up, matching him step for step. "And with the Force I know your deepest feelings. I know what makes you tick. I know what you're going to do before you know it."

Twilight now had her back against the to the tree. She was now thouroughly scared out of her mind.

"I'm a Mandalourian. One of the most feared warriors in the Galaxy." Jusik said as he pulled out a vibro-blade. He could see a crowd of ponies were gthering around them. "I'm also a former Jedi. I could kill everypony in this town and I wouldn't even break a sweat. And let me tell you that is nothing, compared to what a Sith will do. He will take strength from your fear. Your anger. Your pain. He will kill all your friends and family. Cut them to ribbons. He will -"

"STOP IT!" Twilight yelled. Jusik sensed what was coming and threw up a force barrier to protect himself. Twilight's horn glowed purple and she simply tore through his barrier and threw him through the building behind him. Jusik was then smashed into the ground and this process was repeated several more times before he lost track of what was happening. He couldn't fight back, his arms were pinned, and he couldn't concentrate enough to draw upon the force. Then just when he thought it was over, his throat was constricted as she started to choke him. With one last effort, he raised his right arm. Attached to his right arm was a system that, as he had been told by the man who sold it to him, worked just like a Kaminoan Saberdart. But instead of being highly toxic, they were filled with a tranquilizer that could stop a charging Rancor in its tracks. Pressing a button with his left hand, a dart was launched at 156 metres per second. But Jusik never found out if it reached its target, for he passed out after pressing the button.

Author's Note

Damn it... editor's sick. I had to check this myself and I'm not the best when it comes to grammar. Seriously. Then only people who are worse than me are Slaanesh Cultists. (Warhammer 40k Reference)

Planetfall

Chapter 5

I don't trust Mister Bardan Jusik as far as I could spit, but we need somepony of his expertise, and we're learning a lot simply by watching where he goes and hearing what he says to Twilight. Sometimes we lose them for a short period but Twilight has clear instructions and she'll obey them. I hate to use her unquestioning obedience like this, but... it's for the best. If anypony can keep her safe, it's a thug who's done this since he was a foal. But I'm still not taking any chances. If I don't get a report or hear from her every twenty four hours. I'll send the entire Royal Guard after them.

By the way, your... 'Special Operations' team in the Griffon Empire have already begun the destabilization. So much has changed over the last thousand years. Is this any time to be getting squeamish? Or have the nobles decided that it's more moral to fragment a hostile enemy government into anarchy and sacrifice more pony lives than it is to just declare war and get it over with quickly? When do we decide enough Griffons have died, sister? What is our critical mass of threat?

(Princess Celestia to her sister, Princess Luna, during dinner.)

Darth Bane watched the scene in front of the town unfold from the edge of the forest. He had expected the princesses to send somebeing after him, but he hadn't expected a Mandalorian mercenary. Reaching out with the force, he subtly probed the Mandalorian's mind and was surprised by what he found. He was Force sensitive! Bane's eyes widened and for the first time in decades, he felt fear. Being a Mandalorian, the man would prove to be a nuisance. But he was Force sensitive, and had the training to use his powers. This made him most being's worst nightmare.

Bane took a risk and delved deeper into the Mandalorian's mid. Subtly, and slowly, he influenced his emotions. Not enough to completely change them. But enough to slowly raise the man's anger without him noticing that he was being manipulated. This was a challenge because Bane had never excelled at Force manipulation. This kind of job was better suited for his now deceased apprentice, Darth Zannah. The Mandalorian was by no means weak minded, but his gambit worked. Bane watched as the Mandalorian slowly walked closer to the lavender colored unicorn that had accompanied him to the town of Ponyville. The unicorn backed up until its back hit the wall of the library that Bane had found himself in nearly a week earlier. He couldn't hear what the Mandalorian was saying, but he could feel the fear radiating from the lavender unicorn. Suddenly, there was a surge of light side energy from the lavender unicorn. Bane watched as the unicorn tore through the barrier that the Mandalorian threw up. The Mandalorian was picked up by an invisible hand and then thrown through several buildings. This continued for several minutes before the unicorn stopped and held him about ten metres away from her and about a metre above the ground. Bane could now feel, instead of fear coming from the unicorn, it was now hate. Pure and simple. The Mandalorian, slowly raised his right arm and pointed it at the lavender colored unicorn. After a second, something shot out of his armor's forearm plate, and hit the unicorn. The unicorn dropped almost immediately and the Mandalorian along with her. Whatever he shot her with, it wasn't lethal. Bane watched as the crowd of ponies that had gathered around them, crowded around the two of them and carried them away, presumably to a hospital. It took nearly four of the ponies without horns or wings to carry the Mandalorian away.

Turning around, Bane walked back into the forest. There was an abandoned mansion several miles away from a city called Baltimare. He needed a place to set up a base of operations to set up the groundwork for his plans and, hopefully, find a way off this world.

Aboard the Relentless

"Fierfek Des! You alienate the Captain, assault him, and then take over the ship. After Corellia, you seem to be... off." Niner said as Des stepped into the barracks. Sitting on his bunk, Des placed his helmet down, and then emptied his pack and then went through it again. The Relentless was safely in Hyperspace, after making an emergency jump towards the Deep Core to get away from the CIS fleet.

"I prefer being alive Sarge. He was going to get us all killed. Besides, I didn't take over. The general did."

"But there's a chain of command private."

"There wasn't time Niner. It was either act, or watch this mission, and the entire battle group disappear. I couldn't do anything else." Des said. Niner remained silent. Closing his eyes, Des saw the face of his former friend, Lesley. That was all he could see when he closed his eyes. Slowly falling asleep, he dreamed about that night on Corellia.

Corellia/ Wilderness Two weeks earlier

Des crawled through the undergrowth, slowly crawling on his stomach, towards the guard tower at the entrance to the estate.

"Three in the tower, two in front of the gate, how copy?." Bor'ven told Des quietly. Bor'ven was sitting in the branches of a tree a hundred meters behind Des.

"Copy. Moving up, cover me." Des said.

"Covering."

Des continued to crawl, watching his HUD for any new developments. But none came. CorSec, the rest of Beta and Theta squads, and Lesley, had done their jobs well and now awaited their signal that the coast was clear. Des liked Lesley. She was a 'RIO,' a Republic Intelligence Officer, and she cared about the clones that she worked with. But she liked Des in particular. Whenever she came by the barracks, would always sneak in chocolate covered warra nuts or an Uj cake for the squad. The Uj cake always reminded Des of his training sergeant, Kal Skirata. Whenever she did bring an Uj cake, he would aways ask who she got it from and how she got it from Mandalore. But she would just shrug and change the subject.

"Hold." Des herd Bor'ven whisper and Des froze, heart pounding. Had he been seen, was the mission compromised?

"APC, open top, approaching from the south, towards the guard tower." Bor'ven whispered.

"Numbers?"

"Two Trandoshans, seven Weequays. How copy?"

"Copy."

"Any indication that they know we're here?" Niner's voice said over the comm.

"No. This looks like a routine patrol." Bor'ven replied. "Des, clear to move up."

"Moving." Des said as he resumed his crawling. But slowly, making sure not to disturb the tall grass around him. He was now only fourteen metres away from the gate.

"Des, hold position." Bor'ven said urgently. Des froze. "One Weequay, one Trandoshan making their way towards you. How copy?"

"One Weequay, one Trandoshan."

Des could hear the footsteps of the clumsy footsteps of the Weequay, and the swish, swish of the Trandoshan's tail as they drew closer.

"They're too close. I'm taking the shot." Bor'ven said.

"No. I can do it." Des replied. By now the Weequay was standing right above him. Luckily, Des had taken the time to rub dirt, mud, and leaves into his armor, and thanks to the Weequay's bad eyesight, he couldn't see him.

"Fire, fire, fire." on the third 'fire,' Bor'ven fired. The Weequay gained an unnatural, and very new, third eye. Des rolled over and grabbed the Weequay by the throat and slowly lowered it to the ground.

"Weequay? Weequay? Where are you?" Des heard the Trandoshan shout out.

"Osik! Osik! Osik!" Des said as he rolled back over and got ready to run.

"Fire, fire, fire." again, on the third 'fire,' Bor'ven pulled the trigger. There was a pink mist that appeared behind the Trandoshan's head.

"Niner, compromised, going loud."

Aboard the Relentless

Des woke up, breathing heavily.

"Wake up princess. General wants us in the hangar bay ten minutes ago." Niner said. Sitting up, Des ran his gloved hands over his head. Reaching over, Des placed his helmet on and then grabbed his DC. He put the dream out of his mind. There was a new job and he was going to do it.

Everfree forest/ Equestria

Jusik walked through the dark forest, Twilight walking beside him. They had been walking in silence for about an hour now, neither of them making eye contact with the other. Twilight was scared of the forest, but she was more afraid of him. It hurt Jusik, but he just didn't know why he was angry. It just seemed, like one moment he was testing her, and then the next, he wanted her to get angry, he wanted her to lash out. It just didn't make sense.

"Jusik?" he heard Twilight ask.

"Yeah?" Jusik replied. He glanced over at Twilight. She was standing to his left, there was something in front of her, but he couldn't see it. Walking up to her, he saw a freshly dug grave. Twilight just sat in front of it and stared. Jusik squated next to her and reached out in the force... and felt nothing. There wasn't the hate that was assosiated with something like a killing. There wasn't even the force presence of the one that had buried the body.

"Come on. Let's rest." Jusik told Twilight as he steered her away from the grave. When the grave was out of sight, Jusik slipped off his pack and pulled out some food. Hayfries, an apple, and a slice of pie for Twilight, and Uj cake and Nerf meat for him.

"Can I ask you something Mister Jusik?" Twilight asked meekly.

"Yeah." Jusik replied as he took off his helmet.

"What do Mandalorians do with their dead? I mean... um... you're mercenaries and bounty hunters, so the likelyhood that you'll be killed is pretty high."

"Mass graves." Jusik said.

"Huh?" Twilight asked.

"Unmarked mass graves." Jusik replied after taking a bight of te Uj cake, relishing the sweetness. Twilight stared at him in horror. Most species found the words unmarked mass grave the stuff of horror, the worst possible way to end life. And yet... Mandalorians chose it. Jusik tried to see his people as the aruetiise, traitors or foreigners, saw them. To fully understand the fear a few million of them could cause simply by existing. Detached, he saw an invading army wiping out whole species, fighting galactic wars, destroying everything in its path; and he saw mercenaries and bounty hunters, unemotional dealers of death. The image burned into the collective psyche of the galaxy was one of violent savages, thieves, and looters, whose temporary loyalty to anyone but their own could be bought but never garanteed.

It happened to be almost true- except the part about loyalty. Most people didn't understand the nature of a contract.

And they were never close enough to see Mandalorians at peace. Come to think of it, not many Mandalorians did either.

"That's..."

"We Mandos are nomadic, we can't afford, nor do we have the time, to create proper graves that most species prefer."

"Oh... uhm... so how are you going to catch Darth Bane?" Twilight asked akwardly. Jusik took note that she used the word 'catch.' Princess Celestia hadn't told her that Jusik was to execute Bane on sight. This would prove useful.

"Don't know yet. I need to find him first." Jusik replied and they fell into silence again.

"So," Jusik began. "What's that mark you have on your flank?"

"That's my Cutie Mark!" Twilight replied. Jusik didn't need the force to tell that she was glad they were back on a topic she actually knew something about.

"And what is... a 'Cutie Mark'?"

"It let's everypony know what your special talent is. Like mine let's you know that my special talent is magic."

"So you're born with it?"

"No, you have to earn it."

"Interesting. Please, tell me more."

Aboard Republic LAAT/i gunship/ above Equestrian airspace

"Two minutes." the voice of the pilot said over the comm. Des leaned out of the troop bay so he could catch a better look at the terrain below them. Des saw a forest beneath the gunship and a town and castle about three hundred klometers ahead of them. The planet was inhabited then.

The Relentless had dropped out of hyperspace on the outer edges of a system on the outskirts of the Deep Core. It was odd because the system wasn't on the holocharts. It was even stranger because the star orbited the planet. But there were many oddities in the galaxy. Like The Maw near Kessel, or the white dwarf star that was slowly turning into quantam crystal of the Crseih system, and countless others. Anyways, they had dropped into the system, followed by what remained of the Battle-cruiser. So far the Battle-cruiser hadn't engaged them, content to just stand off at a six hundred kilometers. General Tur-Mukan, had sent Beta squad to scout the surface of the planet and establish a beachhead to land the troopers of Sarlaac Company, so the repair crews could work unimpeded.

"Sev, what are you doing?" the voice of Niner cut in.

"Listening to Mon Cal Opera. I'm making my brain smarter."

"Osik, I can see you nodding to the beat." Bor'ven replied.

"Well you-" Sev was interrupted by a loud bang and the gunship rocked violently. Des lost his grip on the handrail and he fell. Bor'ven, being the closest, reached out to grab Des's arm. There was a *clack* as their forearms made contact and then a flare of pain as Des's shoulder was wrenched from its socket. Des cleched his teeth and tears of pain formed in his eyes, but he ignored the pain.

"I've got you ner vod." Bor'ven said. But the gunship rocked again and Des was knocked loose. He watched the larty shrink in size as he fell. But then instincts took over and he flipped over onto his stomach, head pointed towards the gound, and body as straight as possible. He saw the dark forest fast approaching in his visor. With a few blinks he activated his emergency beacon and then shut it off. He had to be careful. The Battle-cruiser might be listening. By now he was only half a kilometer above the twisted treetops and not a clearing in sight. Reaching across his chest with his good arm, he ripped the cord to let the parasail unfurl. He was supposed to use it to glide into the landing zone. The treetops were just below his feet now. Des brought up his kneew into his chest and braced himself for a hard landing.

Everfree forest/ Equestria

"and then the-" Twilight was interupted by a loud but muffled bang. Looking up, Jusik placed his helmet over his head. Switching to the terrahertz scanner, he saw what looked like, and had a engine pattern similar to, a Republic LAAT/i gunship flying overhead, trailing smoke.

"W-what is it?" he heard Twilight ask.

"Uninvited guests. Oya manda!" Jusik cried but Twilight just stared at him in confusion. Twilight couldn't see him behind his helmet, but Jusik was smiling. It was a new oppurtunity to test his skills, though he would never, under any circumstance, kill a clone soldier. But Jusik smiled anyways.

"Let's hunt! oya!"